Laura Jackson
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jalalajackson.bsky.social
Laura Jackson
@jalalajackson.bsky.social
140 followers 190 following 39 posts
part-time bookseller//full-time good-for-nothing

Out-of-print specialist @kalnyc
Generalist/owner @firsthousebooks
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Laura Jackson
archive.org
Family cookbooks, filled with handwritten notes, sometimes held together with rubber bands, tell the story of generations of homemakers. They are irreplaceable treasures.

🦃 Celebrate the cultural & family histories on their worn & stained pages ➡️ blog.archive.org/2024/09/30/v...

#Thanksgiving
Cookbook page stained from use featuring a recipe for corn bread dressing with crossed-out words, ingredient adjustments, and cooking notes in pen, including instructions to cook onion, broth, and celery together. Cookbook page stained from use featuring a recipe for hot cakes with handwritten ingredient adjustments in pen.
November 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
bcdreyer.social
"Cut the fat or rind off the chops, and then bash them briefly but brutally with a rolling pin between two pieces of clingfilm to make them thinner."

Now, *that's* writing.
bcdreyer.social Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 14d
"The only person in the world she genuinely hated, now that her mother was dead, was her sister."

Now, *that's* writing.
November 18, 2025 at 4:24 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
The most unhinged pack-job I’ve ever seen. Thank you. I love it.
A small box filled with what looks like wall insulation (asbestos?) with, at center, a red and blue striped, clown-adorned carnival popcorn bag, which was filled with packing peanuts. Not shown: the neatly wrapped book found underneath.
November 15, 2025 at 9:39 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
What a profound loss.
November 15, 2025 at 12:07 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
The “shut up and give me the recipe” contingent is really missing out.
Page from the True Light Beavers’ cookbook, reading: In May 1970, I decided to take mescaline for the first time in about a year; the reason mainly being that I just wasn't feeling well, that is to say mentally, and only somewhat physically. I've always looked upon mescaline and peyote much in the same way as the American Indians do as a sacrament being good medicine for the body and soul. It would take a volume of writing in itself to explain and describe what previous experiences had brought me to this way of seeing, but at this point, let it suffice to say that I believe with all my heart and soul that what I've gleaned from all this has been beneficial. In the midst of the aforementioned mescaline experience while my attention was focused internally, I saw very plainly that I was "clogged" up inside my body. My mental sphere was black and murky. I detected a very subtle stenchy odor emanating from the pit of my stomach. Only on rare occasion during normal consciousness did I have but a subtle sense of this feeling, only now it became more and more intense, and I became more and more nauseated. I began to realize what I had suspected for quite some time during the "normal" state, but never to such a great extent. I saw that I was unable to recover a once very beautiful and pure feeling that I had about eight years ago, during which time I ate only fruits and vegetables. I say dark heavy layers of consciousness that were the manifestations of different foods that I was eating since I stayed away from a vegetarian diet. Mind you, I didn't see this as a vague or flimsy idea, but felt it in great intensity. I began to vomit up a brown stenchy liquid, sort of a bile color. I felt a tremendous sense of relief and clarity returning with each upheaval…But I can safely say that as I became cognizant of my inner being, I saw that this childlike purity that I was attempting to recover was lost to me…
October 31, 2025 at 4:46 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
@merriam-webster.com, beloved, I think it’s time to update the definition of “show out” to include the usage in your recent examples. 🙏
Merriam-Webster examples of “show out,” as in show (someone) out, using recent examples automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. The examples both demonstrate an alternative usage, undefined here, in which the phrase meaning is more like “show up,” “perform well,” etc.—or whatever. I don’t know; I’m not the dictionary.
October 24, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
wagatwe.com
"purity tests" "circular firing squad" "the left eat their own" are such bullshit phrases.

people disagree on politics! that's how it works.

deal with it instead of whining about marginalized people correctly pointing out that certain "compromises" only strengthens fascism
October 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
bcdreyer.social
"Cheese for dessert is rather like Paradise Lost in that everyone thinks he *ought* to like it, but still you don't notice too many people actually curling up with it." —Peg Bracken
March 19, 2024 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
hels.bsky.social
My 2yo just informed me that her favorite food is gummy bears wrapped in salami. Then she held eye contact while wrapping a gummy bear in salami and eating it.
October 12, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 8, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
susankayequinn.bsky.social
They've lost the 9yos
JA Westenberg @Daojoan@mastodon.social My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.” Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner Kiddo: that’s AI Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM
September 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
ryanestrada.com
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
September 6, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
deathbybadger.bsky.social
i just think "dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is the kind of idiom you trot out when someone is baking cakes, and not when it comes to deciding if one should support a political party actively trying to legislate you out of existence
August 23, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
jeeyon.bsky.social
This is the best product listing copy I’ve ever read
Nothing lasts forever, and that includes the Roman Empire. The Fall of Rome-Scented Candle smells like cypress trees and red wine. Light it and watch the Roman forum melt into a puddle of wax while you quietly contemplate the impermanence of civilizations and/or candles. Do you think individual Romans understood that their civilization was collapsing? Or did it happen so gradually that they were able to ignore the warning signs—international trade breaking down, the senate becoming a rubber stamp for the supreme leader, and political violence becoming expected during transfers of power? It’s hard to say, because it’s impossible to imagine being in that kind of situation. In any event—hope you enjoy the candle!
August 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
dorothyjberry.bsky.social
Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!
Bookplate with a series of six images illustrating a stick figure from the purchase of their first book to their books being unceremoniously tossed after death. Text reads "EX LIBRIS KNUD SCHØNBERG"
July 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
illdottore.bsky.social
Rümeysa Öztürk describes the library in the prison where she was held for 45 days for co-authoring an op-ed
After many requests, I finally accessed what turned out to be the saddest and smallest library I have ever seen. I was surprised to find that the books were not categorized by author or Dewey number but size. I tried to find a book before my allotted time ended and picked a cooking book; the second time I got a novel. I began flipping through the pages in search of solace, as books have always been my safe haven. To my surprise, I discovered handwritten notes scattered throughout the book, dated and written by various detainees over time. These messages were filled with reminders of hope, strength, and the assurance that this, too, shall pass. Tears welled up in my eyes as I read their heartfelt expressions. It’s incredible how human beings can find ways to uplift each other, transcending time, space, and borders if they want to and if they choose to. I continued to turn the pages, holding on to the hope of finding brighter moments in this terrifying situation—all thanks to the kindness of people I had never met.
July 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
starklyjd.bsky.social
Yeah. I expect the GOP to run on a platform of “I want these people dead”.

Democrats, as an opposition, really need to bring something to the table other than “Yeah. Same.”
July 17, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
wagatwe.com
if you claim to oppose fascism, opposing transphobes should be really fucking easy.

the connection between transphobia and fascism is pretty well established!
July 16, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
Found in books: What are the chances anyone on here can identify these folks?
Black and white photo circa WWII. Two men at center wearing apparent USAAF uniforms, holding cigarettes. Flanked by apparent civilian women. All are smiling and seated around a table strewn with empty glasses, an ashtray, a cigarette pack, and possibly matches or a lighter.
July 12, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
prisonculture.bsky.social
Anywho whatever happens tomorrow, the fight continues because the struggle is permanent.
June 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
This break in doomscrolling brought to you by my favorite author photo.
A bleached blonde Barbara Cartland on the back of her cookbook The Romance of Food, wearing a rhinestone-studded pink evening gown with matching pink feather boa and pink feather duster. Gold accoutrements and flowers in the background.
June 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
jalalajackson.bsky.social
I would love for my local politicians to understand that sending white canvassers to majority black/brown/immigrant neighborhoods to aggressively pound on doors while whispering the tenants’ names is not the move right now.
June 15, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
jordanstein.bsky.social
"i asked grok" "i asked chagpt" yeah well I asked a rare books librarian and they found things I didn’t even know I was looking for, while answering questions about provenance
June 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Laura Jackson
marisakabas.bsky.social
“tHeY cAnT dO tHat!!!!!”

ok well they are babe, idk what to tell you
March 4, 2025 at 12:44 AM